Customer Testimonial By Geneablogger True Lewis From NoTeS To MySeLf

We love it when our customers are thrilled with our work.
At RootsTech 2016, we met geneablogger True Lewis who writes about her slave and European ancestors on her blog, NoTeS To MySeLf.  She set up an appointment with a personal designer at the conference and we were able to talk about different options for her custom chart.

True shared the positive experience she had with Family ChartMasters in a recent post from her blog and granted us permission to link to her blog in addition to sharing her thoughts here.

She says:
"I love looking for different genealogy products that will make my family history research stand out.  I'm always looking for something detailed and special for my family...I attended RootsTech 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I made my appointment to meet with a consultant 2 weeks in advance.  I met Ms. Janet on a Thursday...We discussed and went over ideas i had on how we could make this chart come to life.  This is the end product of what I had in mind."

She enjoyed how easy it was to work with Family ChartMasters. "I was able to choose every detail on this chart.  It was very personalized.  It came out to have a total of 35 pictures.  A Bible verse.  Trimming, edging and sepia background.  The size is 24" x 36" in stature.  There is no limit to what you can do for your chart...It arrived fast and in a shipping tube."

As we work with our clients, we are happy to help you get your genealogy chart exactly the way you want it and it shows.  True writes, "They were very patient with me in getting all the details from my tree I keep on Ancestry.com. I had a few revisions and they worked with every move I made...I'm excited about presenting this to the family. It feels so good to see all that I have come from....I can't even express my thanks to Family ChartMasters and their staff for making this masterpiece for me.  It will be cherished for centuries to come.  Thank you for all your patience, kindness and professionalism through the whole process."

True's experience with us made us smile. We would love to help you with your family history chart as well. Take a look at our gallery for ideas and inspiration and then visit our website for a free consultation.  We want to help you create the perfect chart for your family.

NERGC and Maureen Taylor--the most gracious hostess.

So I won the lottery at the recent New England Regional Genealogy Conference in Providence Rhode Island.  Not only was Providence a beautiful site for the conference, not only was the conference great with lots of people excited about what I had to say, but I got to stay with my dear friend Maureen Taylor who lives there.

Maureen was a most gracious hostess and took such wonderful care of me.  She lives in a beautiful turn of the century home which was built with servants quarters in the attic and two sets of stairs, one for the family and one for the servants.  So fun.  We built our home, and most of my local family members and neighbors have built their homes, so it was really awesome to stay in a historical home like that.  And it was in such a beautiful neighborhood too.  Maureen and I stopped at the local private library- the Providence Athenaeum where she has is a member.  A librarian's dream. I wish this library was closer to me--I could spend days and days there very happily.

The best part was getting to know Maureen better and learning more about her life.  I understand now how she keeps so young and healthy and how historically minded she is and so smart.  She lives close to the University and walks everywhere.  I wish my life had more walking in it.  And best of all I got to meet her wonderful husband Dexter and her two adorable Maltese dogs Tucker and Bella. I don't know if Dexter was up for the whole social networking thing but he let me snap this picture of them with his beeeeaaaaautiful antique Ford Mustang. 

Maureen let me do a little studying on her side desk in her office.  It was nice to have this gorgeous painting of her Great Grandfather watching over me.  I didn't get a picture of her beautiful desk and the fireplace and bay window.   She has an amazing personal library about the history of  hair and costume and all things genealogy.  I could have stayed here and read and read too. It isn't hard to see how much Maureen has studied to gain all her expertise.  She really is marvelous when it comes to photo identification.  And now I could see why.  She is called the Photo Detective, but I call her the Photo Whisperer.  If you need a photo identified she does brilliant consultations and she can tell you all sorts of things about your photo to help you identify who and what and where and when.

As always, it was fun to hang out with all our genealogy friends at this conference. It was so nice to see social networking friends that we don't often see out west like Marian Pierre Louis and Midge Frazel.  The Outside the Box sessions were really well attended as usual and we had some great discussions over dinner with Dexter, Lisa Louise Cooke and her husband Bill and with Biff Barnes.  I think we almost have the whole genealogy world figured out. And good food too.  Who knew all the good food was in Rhode Island?

Before I left, Maureen even took me out to the coast and we got to spend the day in Newport.  What a fun place with the Ten Mile Drive, Tennis Hall of Fame, and the best clam chowder ever, ever, ever--and great company of course.  The summer mansions along Ten Mile Drive were gorgeous--so fun for a historian. 

It was great to get to know Maureen better and see more of what her life was like.  Her nice husband, her home, the historical neighborhood she lives in, her offices and her dogs all suit her perfectly.  I was really spoiled to get to spend some time with such a great lady. 

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

DNA testing.  It's the current buzz term in the genealogy world right now.  For good and for bad.  So let's discuss it today, shall we?  Why not, everyone else is!  Today's post is spurred on by a pretty vigorous online discussion that is happening at the moment and I think there are some important points that aren't getting enough attention in the process.

The original story, that you can see in original form here and is also referenced here by Dick Eastman, is of a biologist who, after teaching a college course on the genome, thought it might be fun/informative/interesting/helpful to take a DNA test in order to discover his susceptibility to certain familial cancers.  The fun part, he thought, came in by buying tests for his parents too.  Because honestly, if you are him, why not?  In his defense and in complete sympathy for him, what else could he possibly expect the outcome of a saliva swab to be?  Apparently a bouncing baby boy was not on his list of standard deviations.  Obviously.  So this poor man and his family were thrust into the gaping jaws of a personal family soap opera all because of an opt-in button for finding close relatives.  It's ended quite tragically for his family, and I recognize that in every possible way, but I don't think that this story, or the very many others like it, should cause us to dismiss DNA testing out of hand, without really examining the root of the conflict the "insta-family" button is creating for some folks.

First and foremost, the scripture that keeps coming to mind when I hear this story and so many like it, is actually found in the New Testament in Luke 12:3.  It says: "Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."  The takeaway from that?  We can't hide what we've done.  Eventually everything comes to light.  And now, with these DNA tests, which George Doe (above) discovered and points out, we are dealing with highly advanced paternity tests.  Now, George's story, as tragic as it is, is also very vague on certain details.  How old was the half-brother and did his age indicate that he was born before or after the creation of the author's family?  Did George's father even know (chances are no because the author seems to indicate his dad was just as shocked as he was at the discovery) that this lost child even existed.  There are so many variables to this story that we just don't know.  His father even thought that the test he had taken was defective -- a very common reaction many people are having when unexpected results come back.  And at first, my reaction was that he had to have had some idea that there was a possibility of it when he sent off his cheek swab but now... maybe not so much.  We just don't know how everything went down.  Or when it went down.  So to say that DNA tests are bad or that the "opt-in" button on the results is bad is pretty extreme.  I am a believer in owning our actions.  One hundred percent, all the time, every day.  You do it, own it.  Especially when it comes to light, as Luke has so clearly told us it will, own it.  So to blame the opt-in button is a bitter pill for me to swallow.  I agree with George that it is easy for people to not understand the ramification of clicking that button but part of me still thinks that you've got to go in with eyes wide open knowing that maybe something might come back that you aren't expecting.

There are two sides to this coin though.  The other side of the narrative is referenced beautifully by Kerry Scott in her blog post here.  I seriously wanted to give her a virtual high-five after reading this.  Discovering unknown half-siblings, or that your parents (one or both) aren't your parents, while stunning and possibly devastating, may not be something that needs to be judged as harshly as some people are wont to do.  It may not be what we think it is.  This is especially in the case of long ago generations where life and social expectations were so very different from today.  I loved her comment about a "statute of limitations" for our family judgement.  Good food for thought, isn't it?  People did the best they could do with the knowledge they had and the environment in which they lived.  Sometimes what looks like a shocker family revelation may have been a sincere horror for a woman in our family line.  So that's something to chew on as well.

DNA testing has huge benefits.  It just recently positively identified the remains of Richard III in England, as well as positively identifying Jack the Ripper.  It has gotten innocent people off of death row and it has helped find matches for all sorts of medical miracles.  So, I guess my opinion on DNA testing is we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water (go ahead and insert your tongue firmly into your cheek as you read that too).  Like I say all the time, every family has some scoundrels and some heroes.  Even the scoundrels have heroic qualities and vice versa for our heroes.  The beauty of family history is coming to know who you are and dealing with the good and the bad and healing from all of it.  Things come to light, even things we think we can hide.  Eventually, everyone will know everything.  And maybe that creates some uncomfortable (and even presently damaging) situations for some people. But for now, we don't know what we don't know until we know it.  And to blame all of that on some test is a bit on the extreme side.  Those things existed before the tests are ever taken.  And even then, whose to say we'll really know even then.  But my big takeaway is this, when we research our family history (via records or DNA) we're going to find stuff we may not want.  It may seem like the world is ending in that moment, but eventually, it could be the most healing thing in someone's life.  So I tend to feel, overall, that we should all walk into this with the clear expectation that discovering the unexpected is not a bad thing.  It's an opportunity.

Five Fabulous Family Reunion Ideas

Summer is here and it’s the Family Reunion High Season. It feels almost like Christmas, doesn’t it? Well, just like any holiday season, a successful—not to mention happy—family reunion requires some extra planning and behind the scenes preparation to make the magic happen. Our goal is for a seamless magic that no one really notices but they can see the sparkles just on the edges as they think, “Wow, this is really special.” I’ve been posting some great ideas to pinterest lately that will give you great ideas for your next family gathering. Check out my “Top Five Favorite” Pinterest pins for great family activities that will have both young and old experiencing “sparkly moments” at your next family reunion.

1. Pictures with Captions: This one comes from History Tech  and the original idea suggests placing comment bubbles on a historical picture in order to get some funny quotes going about a specific event. Let people mingle about, review the pictures, and add a saying or two wherever they feel inspired. Can you imagine what some of your family members will come up with? It’s sure to be side-splitting entertainment. 
2. Story Telling Contest I shared this tip from a reader on my Zap the Grandma Gap blog  a little over a year ago but I think it is worth revisiting. For a reunion, you would let the adults know in advance that they should be prepared to present a family story in an engaging and fun way. The real fun, however, will come in when you make the kids at the reunion the judges! Kids are about the most honest people I know and if you stink at storytelling, they won’t hesitate to tell you. Everyone will want to step up their game for this one! 
3. Family Crest Artwork  Look up your family crest in advance to place on display. You could then provide paper and pens/crayons to see who can draw the closest likeness. Or, find a template of a blank family crest and see what kind of imagination runs through your family as people create how they think your family crest should look. Save the artwork for review at your next family reunion while you are at it. 
4. Create a Keepsake This one comes from Lynne Palazzi for Country Living  and let me tell you, it’s one for the generations. A tablecloth that everyone signs when they arrive that is then embroidered over to keep the memories from fading. Pull it out for every family reunion so the list of names can grow right along with your family. 
5. And of Course, A Chart : How could you go wrong with this one? Imagine welcoming your family with a beautifully crafted, personalized Family Chart from Family ChartMasters . If you purchase a decorative chart, we’ll make it possible for the members of your family to purchase copies of that chart for 50% off. A really great deal! Or, order a working chart for a more utilitarian purpose. One of my favorite charts we’ve done recently was a large working chart where everyone in attendance had a space to sign their name under their place on the family tree. Much better than a boring guest book and such a creative idea! 

So there you have it, folks. My top five Pinterest inspired family reunion ideas. I hope it gets the creative juices flowing for all of you. If you have a great idea, please share it with me in the comments below. In the mean time, I hope you are all enjoying the magic and “sparkles” of the Family Reunion season.

WIFAAC--How to Archive Family Keepsakes

So there is another book I want to tell you about that I found at a genealogy conference this year.  At the Spring UGA Conference we had Denise May Levenick "The Family Curator" come out to give the Friday night presentation and speak at the conference.  She is a really sweet lady and I am glad to call her a friend.  She was kind enough to leave me a copy of her book: How To Archive Family Keepsakes.  I keep picking it up to blog about it but I keep getting drawn in and ending up reading it over and over again.  It is chock full of resources about what to do with your family heirlooms.  You may have already heard about it if you read the blogs because she did a great blog tour around the first of the year with it.  But I'm going to add my $.02 because it is just a really great book.

I love how clearly it is laid out with checklists and sample organization sheets.  It drew me right in at the beginning with pages on helping you distinguish what your goals are for a collection and creating some objectives about how you are going to deal with things.  I thought that was a great idea and something we don't think about enough.  But having a clear purpose in mind as we sort through and organize and archive helps us keep on track as to how we take care of our family treasures.

When I wrote my book, Zap The Grandma Gap, I was a little nervous about being bold enough to say that you shouldn't keep everything, but you should actually weed what you have so that the next generation of your family isn't overwhelmed.  Denise actually had a list of what to keep and what to not keep on page 48!  Yea!  I wasn't the only one.  She lists things to save, things to skim then trash, and things to trash.  It is a great guide for how to go about getting rid of things.

And I was happy to learn that we are kindred spirits in that we are both "fiend"s for china.  She says she has become the "family china shop" in case any of her family members change their minds about keeping the family dishes.  My grandmother loved dishes and silver too so I come by that honestly.

And I took good notice of her suggestions on page 94 and 95 of how to take care of quilts.  I heard some great suggestions at the SCGS conference about adding the story to my Grandmother's quilt, but Denise's book gives me all the know how on making sure the quilt itself is well taken care of.

The book is chock full of great ideas on how to care for your family treasures for the regular person.  It is a must read for anyone who cares about making sure their family can continue to treasure the past.  Look for it at her Family Curator site. And check out the rest of this review over at my Zap The Grandma Gap blog where I talk about her section on Digital Wills.  Good stuff!

My very own Super Bowl Party

Even though you may have already seen the posts by Banai Feldstein, Jill Ball, Amy Coffin, I have to show you my favorite pictures from RootsTech. Over the weekend I had the honor of hosting my very own Super (bowl) party with the Giants of the genealogy industry.
Paula Hinkel, Kim Van Aspern-Parker, Caroline Pointer, Banai Feldstein, Randy Seaver, Linda Seaver, Leo Meyers
Drew Smith, Christy Fillerup, Kimberly Powell, David Pugmire, Elissa Scalise Powell, Audrey Collins, Reed Powell, Lisa Louise Cooke
Banai Feldstein, Daniel Horowitz, Mark Olsen, Paula Hinkle


There was this moment in the evening when I walked into the Family Room and saw this: It's like my facebook page come to life and sitting in my family room! So cool. All these people I love and get to work with--right here in my own home. It was just so fun.
Luana Darby, Barbara Rennick, Paul and Sue Maxwell, Dear Myrt, Carrie Keele and her husband, Thomas McEntee, Denise Levenick, Jill Ball and her husband, Lisa Alzo, and the amazing Footnote Maven. All right here in my family room. How spoiled I was for one evening. How much I want to capture them all and keep them here :)
Colette and Barry Ewell and Nancy Shivley
Drew Smith, David Pugmire, Christy Fillerup, Kimberly Powell, Elissa Powell, Audrey Collins
Gordon and Janet Clarke
Kelly and Jim Erickson, Craig Scott, and Reed Powell

Jim and Kelly Erickson, Gordon and Janet Clarke, Anne Tanner, Sue Maxwell, Elissa Powell, Dear Myrt, Lisa Louise Cooke, and Thomas MacEntee.

James and Anne Tanner. And yes Kim made it too :) Somehow he avoided most of the pictures.

I'm so sorry to all the people I missed getting pictures of. But thank you all so much for coming. It was so so much fun to have you all in our home.

I have to profusely give Emily Park an overabundance of thanks for helping me pull this off. While I was speaking that morning, she was working hard getting everything ready and then was a fantastic help keeping everyone happy and fed. Her official position here at Family ChartMasters has now become "Finance Officer and Chief Party Planner." Although I must say that dipping chocolate raspberries and such in valentines sprinkles is pretty fun work. Just take a look:

If you didn't make it, please don't feel bad, just plan on coming the next time we do it. It was so very much fun I'm actually thinking we might do it again. How can I not want to do it again looking at all these pictures. Just pray that Emily is up for it :).

How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers

When I got to the Family History Expo in Mesa, I was greeted with a new book. Of course I already loved the new book because it was by my favorite genealogy lady, Lisa Louise Cooke. I love Lisa's approach to genealogy. She makes it fun and engaging and I think she's better than sliced bread when it comes to the genealogy market. If you haven't ever listened to her Genealogy Gems you should. It is chock full of great ideas and I love listening because she keeps me abreast of all the new things going on.

The new book is chock full of great ideas too. It's titled, Everything You Need to Know About How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers. Lisa is amazing at everything she does and this book is no exception. It is crammed with links and suggestions on how to find your family. There are links for every state, and every country, you can just open it up and get going.

But I was floored when I opened it up. In the front it says this: "Thank You Janet Hovorka. Things were a bit slow in the exhibit hall at one genealogy conference in 2011, so I got a chance to catch up with Janet Hovorka of Family Chartmasters. Janet is a kindred spirit for me. Not only are we the two tall blonde moms chatting our way from one end of the hall to the other, but we share a deep passion for not just family history, but for families and family historians. Janet has been an invaluable sounding board for me, and a cheerleader for the creation of a new book. At that conference Janet encouraged me to ask Leland Meitzler what book genealogists needed right now..."

Now I don't know if I inspire Lisa alot, but I know she inspires me. She is the same invaluable sounding board on this side and I get lots of brilliant ideas from her. We both care deeply about the soul sanctifying benefits of family history. I highly recommend her book. I know it will help you find more about your family. And you can come see Lisa at RootsTech this week, or at the UGA conference March 3rd. She is an amazing speaker and I know you'll come away energized about your family history.

Why bother? and the one thing I've learned.--Our teenage experiment

Randy Seaver over at the Geneamusings Blog had an interesting post yesterday. It gave me another reason as to "why bother to involve your kids?" What are you going to do with all of your genealogy material after you are gone? I think this is a scary question for all of us. Is someone going to care about my years and years of research? How tragic if no one does.

The answer is really what we've been working on here. Get your family invested. And the sooner you involve them, the easier it will be to get them interested. That's why I talk about it so much on our blog. And that's why we print charts--a great way to get your family invested.

I think the one thing I've learned over the last several weeks of trying to get my teenagers involved in our family history is this: DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THEIR INTEREST. I have three teenagers with every reason not to like this family project we are working on. First, I gave them something really hard to do--extraction isn't the most exciting part of family history. Second, my kids have lots of reasons to resent family history in general--it's what their Mom and Dad have been so busy with for so many years. As teenagers sometimes do they could mis-blame family history for alot of the stress in our family. And third, they've certainly had overdoses of genealogy in the last 8 years--they are constantly surrounded by it, just not particularly their own. You would think they'd had enough.

But they've taken to it. I think they are enjoying seeing the pieces fit together, and working on something that they have been taught is important. They aren't complaining or whining that "Mom is making me do it" at all. I think they are really catching the geneainspiration of it. It feeds the soul. And that's exactly what I was trying to do. Hopefully in the end, I'll have someone to carry on my work, and I'll have children who are really well grounded in who they are and where they come from, which should help with where they are going too.

Gratitude ... Just Gratitude.

Hugs and hugs and more hugs. We are on our way home from the Southern California Genealogical Society Conference and I am so sad to see it go. From the minute we walked in to the conference, I felt as if I had come home. These were my people. These are the people I love and care about because they are as passionate about family history as I am, and because they are good, good people. As we work with people more virtually, it becomes even more satisfying when you actually get to see those people in person. And it is so satisfying to work with people I respect so much, people like Randy Seaver, Lous Szucs, footnoteMaven, George Morgan, Drew Smith, Denise Levnick, Dick Eastman, Thomas McEntee, Amy Coffin, Warren Bittner, Kory Meyerink, Crista Cowan, Joan Miller, Kathryn Doyle, Lisa Alzo and so very many others. I learn so much from each of them and it was so good to have time to talk to them. These, my people--genealogists, are the best people in the world. There was an attendee who lost her iPad at this conference. She had come around several times looking for it and I assured her that someone would turn it in. Of course someeone did. That's just the crowd we run in. Thank you for how rich and wonderful you make my life. And for all the great hugs.

I also have more big time grattitude because the new name, Family ChartMasters, was very well received. Dozens of times at this conference we heard "I really like your new name" or "Yeah, we've seen you before." That is music to the ears of someone who has just changed their company's identity. We have known we needed to do it for a long, long time but knew it would be a painful process. While it has been alot of work, it hasn't been as nearly as painful as we thought, and it looks like everyone still knows where to get the same great service and the same great charts. Thank you all for that.

And speaking of the same great service, I am so, so grateful for Erin Roudabush who is holding down the fort at home. We've had the best year ever so far this year, and it has been very busy keeping everything straight. I am so thankful for how readily Erin has stepped up to the plate on so many levels. We are so blessed to have someone who understands our company so well, who knows how to run it better than we do, and who cares so deeply about what we are doing. Erin is an incredibly intelligent woman, a great example to me, and I am so honored to call her my friend and occasional therapist.

Friday night, I left the party to go up to my room and teleconference in to our Utah Genealogical Association board meeting--live from downtown Burbank. I really love these, my people as well and I'm so proud of what we are doing. Christy Fillerup, Sue Maxwell, Bud Wood, Barry Ewell, Patsy Hendrickson, Jason Harrison, Suzanne Curley, Kathy Palmer,Kevin Wolford, Dan Lawyer, and Adele Marcum. Wilma Adkins, Colette Ewell, A.C. Ivory, Gena Ortega, Julia Corry, Bret Peterson, Kris Whittaker, Gordon Lewis, Valerie Elkins. It is such an honor to work with all of you and I am so proud of what we are doing. I went to a session presented at SCGS about bringing your society into the 21st century, and every idea presented there we already have nailed down. We are doing some great things with UGA and I am so grateful to be a part of it.

And as always it is so good to see the other vendors that have become our family and catch up with them and how their families are doing. The vendors hall is the best place to hang out. Marlo and DeAnna Schuldt, Geoff Rassmussen and Dave Berdan, Leland Meitzler, Maureen Taylor, Paul Larsen, Lisa Louise Cooke, Allison Stacey, Daniel Horowitz and everyone else. I care deeply about these people and how their companies are doing. It is my privilege to call them friends and to recommend their products. And the best part of any conference is decompressing at dinner afterward, talking about how the day went and where the industry is. I am so grateful for the friends and mentors we have in Mike Booth and Bruce Buzbee and their families.

As the conference wound down, I found myself saying that I wish we could do it for several more days, but I don't know that I could do it. We headed out quickly because we need to get back to everything that needs to ship out Monday and to my beautiful, actual family. I am so thankful to have so much to go back to. Thank you for knowing where you can get the best help with printing your genealogy charts. And congratulations to Paula Hinkle, Leo Meyers and their team for another great conference.

Vendors

We've been busy with the renaming of the company and a wonderful pre-family reunion season rush this last several weeks (THANK YOU--we're loving it). I've been very quiet on the social networking front, so quiet that I'm feeling a little shy about diving back in. But I'm going to take a deep breath and do it. In return for this indulgence--I promise we'll announce the winner of the renaming contest here tomorrow :).

Luckily, I have caught the continuing posts in the blogging community prompted by Thomas McEntee's revealing Genea-opportunities and Genealogy Conferences--the magic recipe series. The discussion has been interesting. Here's something else to think about...

The view from where I sit:
I was particularly interested in Thomas's Us vs. Them post. I cross many us vs. them boundaries. I've been involved in conferences and the genealogy community from all sides. I currently have about 17 active lectures that I give in all sorts of venues--from webinars to Family History Center staff meetings to large national conferences, paid and unpaid, about our company and on completely different topics. I blog and tweet and facebook. I periodically teach genealogy at Salt Lake Community College. I'm president of the Utah Genealogical Association this year and in the past have been involved in setting up and running conferences--everything from venue to bills to food to vendors to speaker contracts (SLIG and etc, this year's annual conference will be August 19th and 20th, watch for info at ugagenealogy.org.) And of course as Development Director and Co-Owner of Generation Maps, I'm one of the vendors (cue the ominous Jaws music.)

With my Master's in Library Science degree I could do genealogy research and get credentialed but instead I've chosen to become one of them--the vendors. I've chosen to follow what I love--helping people share their genealogy and entice others into searching out their history by helping them display their family's history in beautiful ways. I'm finding that in some ways, by buying vendor's space at a conference, I put up barriers and some prejudices to our involvement in the genealogy community. To some people I become a "them."

In the last couple of months, I have watched some of our "vendor" partners be uninvited to conferences, told not to mention their company when speaking, and be excluded from social networking, promotional and educational opportunities. We observe a lot of mis-trust of anyone who is a "vendor" because they are "only in it to make money" or perhaps "only in it for the advertising." In some corners of the blogging community there are people who are wary of anything "commercial" and yet the definitions of what is commercial are sometimes ill-informed. I've seen database companies invited to participate in events because they are "helping" but then other companies excluded. We even had one conference years ago that uninvited vendors and then proceeded to advertise for the local restaurants at lunchtime. And yet we are consistently approached by some of those same entities to donate items for gift bags and drawings--which we are happy to do. These sometimes strange attitudes make it very hard for new and upcoming companies, or even established ones, to get the word out about their services.

As a vendor, I don't feel very different from other members in this community. In fact, I think many would be surprised to know that as I've moved throughout this community, I've found that many of the companies in the vendors hall make much less than many of the lecturers, authors, and professional researchers do. There tends to be a perception that the "vendors" are the only people who advertise. However, if you look around, there is self-promotion everywhere in this community. So to follow Thomas's generous transparency, I'm going to pull down one more curtain. Often the people you trust the most to bring you the genealogy information you need--bloggers, lecturers, authors, professional researchers, and etc. "the educators" are the ones who are succeeding at the self-promotion the best. I've seen the contracts and I've seen the affiliate checks. When you promote "the educators" but don't promote "commercial vendors" you have your lines crossed and confused. Why can't we all advertise? Anyone who is good at what they do deserves reimbursement.

Making a living is a good thing. I am sad to sometimes see a general mis-trust in this community towards anyone who is trying to make a living--speakers and researchers, but especially a mis-trust against helping vendors get the word out about what they are doing. I'm still trying to figure out where that comes from. I think in part it comes from having two major industry players--one who is highly subsidized and not interested in making a profit but very vested in maintaining their non-profit status, and one who is so interested in making a profit that it aggressively acquires other companies and opportunities in the marketplace. In any other industry, a hard day's work is rewarded handsomely because we want to see that person continue to do what they are doing. Isn't it time that we do the same in the genealogy community? If you want to see more companies and individuals who are working hard to make your genealogy adventure easier--support them. Help them get the word out about what they are doing. It is ok to make a buck on family history. We want them to make a living so that they can continue to do what they do--help us. It is in all our best interests to have a strong, thriving genealogy industry where vendors are welcomed and encouraged.

So please go out and thank a vendor today for making your genealogy endeavors easier. Go spend some money on your genealogy pursuit. And then tell someone about it when your money was well spent.

Geneapress--The place to get genealogy news.

I'm very happy to announce a new blog that I'm hoping everyone in the genealogy community will read. It's called GeneaPress. (www.geneapress.com) I've been receiving lots of press releases and haven't been able to keep up with getting everything published like I would like to. There is also alot of redundancy in the blogging world if you read several of the popular blogs. This new blog will be a wonderful place for people to get the news first hand--from the press releases--and then your favorite bloggers will be able to stick more to the commentary on the news.

According to the "About" information on the blog:
GeneaPress is a communal effort by the genealogy and family history blogging community to manage the large number of press releases received from genealogy vendors and organizations. The goal is to create a repository where bloggers can link to the latest news about the genealogy industry.

Kudos again to Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers for leading out in another collaborative effort that will strengthen our genealogy community.

Recommendations

I have worked with A.C. extensively over the last year with the Utah Genealogical Association. He is a vibrant spot in the genealogy world. You'll do well to watch his information on Mac genealogy and mobile genealogy and he also does lookups at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Take a look:

For immediate Release
Sunday, January 2, 2011

A FRESH LOOK FOR A NEW YEAR

Find My Ancestor Has Received a Makeover

January 2, 2011 - Taylorsville, UT. Find My Ancestor has announced the redesign and update to their site. The site has received many new pages and features including new downloads, new resources, a completely new blog design, social media integration and
many more. With the new design, Find My Ancestor is much easier to navigate and find
your way around making it a more enjoyable experience for the users. Using the new
website builder makes it very easy for creating new pages, quickly allowing Find My
Ancestor to be able to create more pages, how-to’s, downloads and many other features
to help it’s users learn more about genealogy and the tools available to help them in their
research.

About A.C. Ivory

As a genealogist specializing in the use of technology, social media and Mac computers, A.C. Ivory relies on his young genealogist perspectives to relay the importance of using the new tools and resources that will help genealogists achieve their research goals faster, easier and more efficiently. As the creator of FindMyAncestor.com, he has striven to provide genealogists with genealogical news, events, conference reports and new technology updates available to help genealogists in their research efforts.

About Find My Ancestor

Find My Ancestor provides various services to the genealogy and family history community including education, design, Family History Library research assistance and more.

A.C. Ivory is the driving force for Find My Ancestor. A.C. Ivory has been involved with genealogy and family history for over 4 years. A.C. Ivory is only 23 years old and full of genealogy knowledge and ambition.

Follow Find My Ancestor on Facebook (http://facebook.com/findmyancestor), Twitter (http:// twitter.com/findmyancestor) and on our blog at http://blog.findmyancestor.com

Come see us in sunny CA

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long.
If you're goin my way, I wanna ride it all night long.
--Rascal Flatts

Crank up the tunes. It's conference season again.
--Janet

We're on the road again. Life is sweet. While not as inventive as the RootsMagic Guys, I do still have a couple of pictures for you for as hint about where we are going. I have sweet family history there--so it's like I'm going home. I've talked about this before. I don't have to go quite as far as Lisa Alzo (she's in Slovakia and slept in her great-grandfather's house last night. I'm so excited for her. I'm sure she'll be blogging about it when she gets back.)

7878 Naylor Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90045. That's where my mother grew up. And that's where I spent the best part of my summers as a child. We'd leave poor Dad working and take off for long stretches of the summer to my Maternal Grandparent's house. I learned to rollerskate on the bumpy sidewalk out in front. We watched Winnie the Pooh videos in the back bedroom, and there is not a sound I would love more to hear today than my grandfather singing "yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me" again.

Mom was the ultimate beach babe. She went to summer school so that she and her friends could walk to the beach afterward. My best claim to fame has always been that Mom went to high school with the Turtles and sang in accapella choir with them. Beach Boys music is our family soundtrack but when I told Mom I was going to write about her Gidget days she said "whatever." Yeah. She's still got some Gidget in her.
My grandparents moved from there in 1989, but I can still smell the jasmine outside the kitchen window, wonder what the can of hominy was in the pantry, taste the bottled water that was delivered once a week, and feel Grandpa's favorite coconut cookies that stayed soft in the humidity. I even remember the zip code though I often can't remember my phone number.

One of the four generations who've ridden the Santa Monica Pier Carousel.

Today though, we have new great memories of LA. It is the site of the Southern California Genealogy Society Conference every June which has become a mecca for the blogger community. I get to see all the wonderful friends that I talk to on facebook, twitter, genealogywise and the blogs. It is alot like a family reunion, catching up with people you don't get to see enough.

I am doing 3 classes. If you are around the So. Cal area I'd love to see you at the Burbank Marriott. I'm teaching How to Interest Your Family In Their Family History from 3-4pm on Friday. Digital Archiving from 8:30-9:30 Saturday morning, and Easy Online Genealogy Chart Creation with Family ChArtist from 2-3 on Sunday. And of course Kim and I will be at the booth too. Come say Hi.

Lisa Louise Cooke sent me this too:
Hi Janet,

Hope you're doing great. I just wanted to send you a quick note and see if you would be wiling to let your readers know about the free live Genealogy Gems Podcast <www.genealogygems.com> we'll be presenting at Jamboree on Sat. June 12 at 1:00 in the Pavilion. I've got some great guests lined up:

• Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective
• Suzanne Russo Adams, Ancestry talking about her research on Who Do You Think You Are?
• Chris Haley

I put together a 2 minute video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZM_Xjcrwk

We're going to be giving away lots of very cool prizes throughout the show too!

And Daniel Horowitz is back on his West Coast Genealogy Tour II. You can
learn the latest technology developments going on at My Heritage and receive a FREE copy of the software "Family Tree Builder" at his lectures.

It's going to be a blast. I'll keep you posted with pictures and such.

Janet's Guide To Salt Lake City--Getting Started

As a precursor to NGS in Salt Lake City in three weeks, I've decided to do a series of article posts I'm going to call "Janet's Genealogy Guide to Salt Lake City" I spent a large chunk of my growing up years here on the Wasatch Front and I also spent a large chunk of my growing up years traveling. Consequently, I want to make sure you make the most of your visit. As Vice President of UGA, I'm also going to be posting these to the NGS conference blog. But I thought I'd put it here because I should probably keep a certain level of decorum over there. And you know how hard that is going to be for me. Soooooo, it will probably be more fun to read here.

To start with, let me give you some of the best websites for touristy information. If you are the type who wants to know every detail (like I am sometimes), you'll want to get well acquainted with these sites. If you're busy packing and just want the highlights, (like I am other times) stay tuned and I'll make sure you know what you need to.

My favorite site for the how to of visiting Salt Lake is the Downtown Alliance. This site is chock full of events, shopping, eating, news and etc organized well and correlated with maps and crucial information. This website is especially useful if you are visiting the library because it focuses on downtown Salt Lake--the area right around the library and the Salt Palace Convention Center.

The Salt Lake Visitor's Bureau has a great site too with shopping, activities and eating and etc but covers the whole valley (Salt Lake and it's suburbs.) The cool thing about the Visitor's Bureau is that their offices are in the Salt Palace Convention Center, just next door to where NGS is held. So you'll easily be able to stop by there for directions and pamphlets and such. The site currently has a genealogy section right up front in conjunction with Who Do You Think You Are.

The Official Salt Lake City Government Site is a good site for all things Salt Lake, but the visitor's section of the site mainly points to other sites listed here. Since you won't be paying your water bill, you can pretty much pass this one up. Unless you are going to be paying for a traffic ticket, in which case you'll want to keep this one in mind.

If you are driving to the conference, you may want to take a look at the Utah State Office of Tourism website. It has wonderful resources on the other places you might want to stop off at on your way in or out of the state. Of course, if you are coming up from the South at all, you really need to take an extra day and visit some of the spectacular state parks that Utah is so proud of. Likewise Go-Utah is a great site for trip planning throughout the state.

Utah Travel Center is a conglomeration site with all sorts of information on Salt Lake City pulled from various sources. And Citysearch has user submited reviews on everything from shopping and resturaunts to bars and churches. So it's a useful one too.

Take a look at those, and stay tuned as I take you through the ins and outs of traveling to Salt Lake City.

Family ChArtist Video

I've never been so flattered/nervous/excited. Mark Tucker has graciously made us an introductory video. I'm so honored that he's so excited about the new program. He has a wonderful graphic mind and for him to like Family ChArtist is just one of the greatest compliments I could ever hope for. And he is such a capable teacher he made it look great. Thank you so much Mark. Take a look.



You can also access the video on YouTube.

The vibes are goin' on...

The last week has definitely been good for my ego. It is so nice to be appreciated by my peers. Especially people that I admire and appreciate so much.

Lisa Alzo has passed me the Genea-Speak award. Thank you so much Lisa for the kind words. I'm so honored to receive it from you. It is given "for excellence in writing, speaking, and the promoting of good genealogical practices." The requirement upon receiving the award is to pass it on to at least two deserving recipients. I am going to send it on to the two people who have completely inspired me this last couple of months. Ancestry Insider and Mark Tucker.

The Ancestry Insider keeps us up on two of genealogy's biggest entities Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com. I am honored to know the identity of and be able to work with AI and it seems every time I get to talk to him I come away with a shift of paradigm. He is a brilliant person and I look forward to learning lots more from him.

Mark Tucker from the Think Genealogy Blog is another of the great thinkers in the genealogy world. He has a wonderful graphical mind that he has used to come up with good ways to help beginners understand complex ideas. He also turned me on to the book Slideology. I look forward to learning lots more from Mark as well.



Lisa Louise Cooke and James Tanner have also both passed me the Kreative Blogger Award. I so appreciate their recognition and highly recommend their blogs to you as well. With this award, I have to reveal 7 things you may not know about me and then recommend 7 more blogs to you.

1. I "know" (read: have studied) German, Greek, Contemporary and Ancient Hebrew, Standard and Colloquial Arabic and Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

2 My favorite sandwich is cream cheese and raspberry jam, and my favorite color is purple.

3. I spent a week in the Massai Mara Game Preserve. Giraffes are absolutely beautiful in the wild.

4. The last 5 months have totally overhauled my research methodology in genealogy. But I haven't talked about that much on my blog yet.

5. I've decided to write a book. Don't hold your breath, but I think I have something to say. You'll catch some of it here I'm sure.

6. I am going to begin teaching in the Genealogy Program at Salt Lake Community College in January.

7. I am astounded to have been elected last weekend as the Vice President of the Utah Genealogical Association for 2010 (more on that in the next post.)

For the Kreative Blogger Award, I pass the baton to:
Carolyn L Barkley Genealogy and Family History.com
Renee Zamora Renee's Genealogy Blog
Elyse Doerflinger Elyse's Genealogy Blog
Tom Kemp at Ask the Genealogist
Marlo Schuldt The Heritage Collector's Blog A brand new blog by a great writer.
Elizabeth O'Neal Little Bytes of Life (and she beat me barely so I'm counting it anyway.)
the Footnote Maven Shades of the Departed. (The master.)

Go check them out and tell them I said hi.

Wow. I'm Geneasmacked.

I'm Verklempt. Or perhaps Geneasmacked.

Tamura Jones named the Chart Chick the best genealogy vendor blog in his 2009 Geneablog Awards. I'm so honored to be recognized by such a well respected blogger. Thanks.

New (and new to me) Genealogical Serendipity

From our newsletter:

We've been hearing some wonderful serendipitous stories from many of you lately. We are in a wonderful position in this industry where we get to talk to you after you have done genealogy research and gotten hooked. We count ourselves very lucky to get to work with such wonderful people and love to hear about your research.

If you listened to the podcasts I did lately you'll know serendipity has come up in my interviews quite a bit recently. And apparently the subject has been popping up other places with the people who interviewed me too. Lisa Louise Cooke just posted a new podcast talking about some serendipity stories, and I just happened to stumble across an old (new to me) podcast with George Morgan and Drew Smith that they talked about it too.

Besides the times we have talked about it on this site, snooping around a little more recently I've found a couple of other new to me sites:
Granduncle Mark's Genealogy Parlor
The Serendipity Listing on Cyndi's list
Serendipity on Genealogy Today

We've recently had our users tell us stories about searching records and having have a book open right to the marriage record of someone on different line that they thought was in another state. Or traveling to another country to find records and coming up blank, and then a cousin making a wild suggestion about a local place where the records eventually were found. Or having a business client mention someone they were looking for but hadn't been able to find and having that person turn out to be the business person's neighbor. We have heard many, many such stories this year. Thank you for sharing them with us, and if you'd ever like to share them further, we'd love to have you write an article for the blog.

And I have a great story I just realized I've never talked about here too: A couple of years ago we were displaying some of our charts at a genealogy conference. While we change the information on the living people, many of our display charts are of my own ancestry. As often happens, one lady came up and looked closely at the chart looking for people she was related to and she found Rosina Christina Gregerson, my great grandmother who died in 1934. When she said she had a book about my family and that she would sell me a copy, I was skeptical. But the book she brought in the next day was an incredible record of my family. I was actually in it as a descendant, and it ranged up through this line seven generations. It is an incredible 700 pages of stories and pictures and even included a chapter that my grandmother Hortense had written about her mother that we never knew existed. Needless to say I bought it from her and have treasured it. We often find distant cousins of mine at conferences. So if you ever need some help breaking through a brick wall, you can always let us display your chart at the conferences we go to. :-)

One of the important things to remember about serendipity is that the thing that makes these stories so great is how long the person has been looking for the information that has miraculously appeared. So don't get discouraged if you haven't had some serendipity in your research lately. There may be some right around the corner. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, in her book In Search Of Our Ancestors, says that if you put 50 genealogists in a room, 45 of them will have had a serendipity experience. So if you haven't had one lately, don't worry. It's coming.

You know I think the word I like the best in genealogy serendipity is "miracles." I think genealogy brings all sorts of miracles into your life. It certainly has brought miracles into my life and it gives me this amazing sense of awe. It's just one of the many things that makes genealogy so exciting and fun.

Twitter best practices--retweet

I have a few more best practices for tweeting lectures. I had a great talk with Lisa Louise Cooke at the conference about twitter and lecturing. We both agreed that you learn more from being tweeted as a lecturer than you do from tweeting someone else. So here are a couple more ideas Lisa and I came up with.

Thanks to Lisa Alzo for tweeting my "Serendipity and Other Miracles: Why you need Family History" lecture. I learned a couple of things from her as well:

1) It is always good to give the twitter name for your presenter (@JanetHovorka, or @GenerationMaps) so that people can go follow them as well and hear what they have to say directly, or what they might respond about their lecture.

2) Tell them great job! (When deserved of course.) There is nothing more awesome than having someone appreciate your work and tell everyone else that they appreciate it too. Lisa came up to me after the conference and said she really loved the lecture. I particularly appreciated her feedback this time because I have struggled with that lecture more than any of my others. I absolutely love the topic, so I'm really critical of myself and I had just reworked the slides again. So I completely soaked up her compliments. That was a wonderful ending to the conference for me. And when I saw that she had been so generous on Twitter, that made my day too. So now that she has recommended it to you--you'll have to catch that lecture sometime. And I'll keep working on it so that next time it can live up to my expectations too.

Also on this topic, take a look at Ancestry Insider's tweeting policy at http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/2009/08/tweeting-presentations-policy.html. He has some good usage guidelines. I also think that offering to make corrections is a good best practice. But I hope AI doesn't ever dislike a lecture of mine :-), I think I will personally reserve the right to change opinions too. And I hope claiming copyright of his tweets doesn't get AI thrown out of some lectures ;-). But I do agree with him that he is the originator of those tweets and thus he owns them. Same as a newspaper reporter--it is his take on the situation.

Looking forward to reading the FGS tweets this week. I'll be reading them from the beach in Hawaii while attending my sister's wedding. If you are wanting to read them too, but don't know where to look, take a look the people I follow here or here and follow some of them yourself. Or search for the hashtag #fgs-09. Happy tweeting.

Twitter Best Practices for Genealogy Conferences--Some ideas

With the Family History Expo coming up in Sandy, and FGS the week after that, and the EWGS Conference the next week, I thought I might share some ideas about how to ethically and effectively tweet a genealogy conference. In particular I'm talking about tweeting a lecture but I think it also applies to those great conversations we get to have.

Especially since I am going to be in Hawaii at my sister's wedding during FGS, I'm looking forward to hearing about the conference via social media channels. I hope everyone will be generous in letting me know what is going on so I won't feel too left out. (I won't be sobbing in Hawaii, but I *will* miss you guys.)

In the spirit of the twitter movement, I'll keep my ideas to a numbered list. We'll see if I can keep them to 140 characters.

Having been twittered and then twittering a lecture at the last conference there are some things I would do different. I've learned:

1. It goes without saying that credit should be given. List the lecturer's blog, twitter, facebook, possibly even an email spelled out.
   
2. I would argue that you don't need permission any more than a movie or restaurant reviewer. But it would be nice of you to ask.
3. Distinguish your comments by using "quotes" for what the lecturer said and (parenthesis) for what you are adding.
4. Use your own words and give a review not a regurgitation. Think live news reporting not videotaping.
5. Posting later to your blog is nice and extends the discussion. Think newspaper reporting.
6. Use the hashtag for the conference to be able to participate in the community. Like: #SCGS09, #FHX09, or #BYUgen
7. University professors are appreciating how the social networking turns a class into a community--participate in the gen conference community
8. Twitter is a great place to ask questions. It saves the question for later and doesn't interrupt the lecturer's train of thought.
9. Twitter can be an extension of the question and answer period. A lecturer might answer later or you might get an answer from the community.
10. A competent lecturer will enjoy continuing the conversation on their blog or on twitter. Check their social networking avenues for responses
11. But be patient, conferences are very busy for lecturers and they may not get to it--even for a couple of days.
12. You might even RT or link to a lecturer's responses so that your readers will get the answers along with the questions.
    
13. Hopefully you can help twitter change appropriate lectures from show&tell to a conversation-universally accepted as a better teaching method
14. And finally, try to keep your tap, tap, tapping somewhat quiet. Don't bother the person next to you.
15. Your ideas?

And some other reading about using twitter.

• The Twitter Experiment UT Dallas on You Tube. And the professor's analysis. The professor there used it as a discussion tool when the class was too large for everyone to participate in the discussion. Likewise, it could be used at genealogy conferences as an extension of the question and answer period where shy people might be able to speak up, and the lecturer could continue to answer questions later on and into the next day.
• The Cabinet Office in the UK has posted a Twitter Strategy Paper for government departments in the United Kingdom. Interesting to see how Her Majesty's government thinks they should use twitter. Especially interesting was the tools they are using to track who is talking about them--useful for a lecturer to track what is being said. And interesting what they thought the guide rules should be for appropriate content--no mention of copyright.